Read Tutti Italia: A Novel Online
Authors: Deena Jordan
“Extremely. If I ever object to something again, make sure
that you drag me anyway.” The girls were laughing as they went into the
restaurant. Elena led the way to a certain waiter who hugged her and showed
her to a table right away. Rachel was a little confused, but she decided to
just go with it.
“We used to date.” That was the explanation Elena gave her
once they’d put their orders in. “Usually, at the end of the night, he always
brings me and my friends free shots. Just to see if any of us will get drunk
and kiss him.” Rachel didn’t quite know what to think about that. Wouldn’t he
get in trouble for giving out that much alcohol for free? Their lunch came,
and the girls ate in between stories of boyfriends and romantic encounters.
Elena’s phone rang as they were ordering dessert. She excused herself to the
bathroom, and Rachel sat at the table, just looking around at the décor and the
other patrons that were currently in the dining room she was in. Elena finally
came back to the table, but her eyes were red and her nose was stuffy. She
looked like she’d been crying. “Giovanni broke up with me.”
“Oh, no! What happened?” Rachel felt awful for her
friend. “Do you want to talk about it?” Elena had tears coursing down her
cheeks. They ate their meal in utter silence; Elena hurting over her breakup and
Rachel hurting that she couldn’t help her friend. Elena drove Rachel home,
then left without a word. There was nothing that Rachel could do. She called
Jason.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Rach. You’re good friends with Elena, right?”
This was the only thing that she could think of that she could do to help.
“Yeah. I met her when I met you. Why? What’s going on?”
Rachel explained to him that she and Elena had been out to lunch, and that
she’d gotten a phone call from her boyfriend, breaking up with her. “Oh no.
That’s awful.”
“I know. Would you be willing to go over and check on
her? I’d do it myself but I don’t have a car.” Rachel was sure that her
embarrassment came out through her voice.
“Yeah, I can do that. Not a problem. Do you know where
she lives?” Rachel gave him the address. “Ok, I’m heading up there right
now. It’s not too far from where I live.” That confused Rachel.
“I thought that you lived on base?”
“I just moved out yesterday. I’m staying with one of my
friends. We went in on a two bedroom apartment together.” Oh, ok. That made
sense.
“So where do you live now? I mean, if it’s not too much to
ask.”
“Not at all. It’s right out the main gate. Fifth house on
the left, second floor, apartment B.” She quickly wrote it down just to be
safe.
“Thank you so much for going to check on her. It means a
lot to me.”
“It’s not a problem.” He hung up the phone, and Rachel
smiled to herself. She felt like she’d helped her friend after all. The day
was only a little more than half over, and Rachel now had nothing to do for the
rest of it. She put on her IPod and picked up her cross stitch. She was
almost finished with the project that she’d started, and was dying to start one
of her new ones. Her goal was to finish the old one tonight. By the time that
nine thirty rolled around, she took her last stitch and set the finished
project aside. She grinned. Her goal had been met. She was tired from
looking back and forth from her pattern to her canvas, and she was going to relax
and unwind with a nice hot shower. She lost track of time as the hot water
cascaded over her, lulling her even more into a state of drowsiness. She
hurriedly dried off, put on her pajamas, and curled up in bed. With a loud
yawn, she let the blackness take her.
Friday dawned wet and rainy. Rachel could hear it drumming
on her window and the walkway outside. She sighed. This was the perfect
weather to curl up with someone you liked, on the couch, with popcorn and a
movie. Unfortunately, she couldn’t do that and it made her sad. If that
wasn’t an option of how to spend the day, then she just wanted to curl up and
go back to sleep. She got up and looked out the window. If it was only a
drizzle, then she might consider going out and doing something with her day.
When she saw the torrents that were streaming down from the clouds, she shut
her blinds again and dove back into her bed. In a few minutes, her eyes
drifted shut again, and she slept for a few more hours. When she awoke for the
second time, the rain had only gotten worse. Oh well. She had food in the
kitchen, and she could start one of her new projects. That made her happy.
Unfortunately, the weather still had her being more tired than she should be.
She could almost feel herself dozing between stitches. She went into the
kitchen and grabbed herself an energy drink. Sipping it every now and then
kept her awake. She started to get into the music a little more, the longer
she listened, and the beats kept her awake as well. She got a good chunk of
her new picture done, and she was proud of herself. It was her last free day
before the weekend, and she had an idea for tomorrow…providing that the weather
decided to cooperate with her. She enjoyed the rest of her day, but it went by
too quickly for her. She could only tell how many hours she’d been awake by
how much stitching she’d done that day. That night she went to bed with
butterflies in her stomach. Praying that the weather would be nice tomorrow.
When she looked out the window the next morning, she was
overjoyed. Her prayers had been answered. The sun was up and it was already
warm. She checked the time. It was nine thirty. She hurriedly got dressed
and brushed her hair and teeth, snatched her purse, and made her way across the
street to the mini mall. She found the car rental place at the far end, and
quickly signed up for a week’s worth of driving a little Fiat 500. She wanted
to surprise Jason and take him out to breakfast. She had the directions with
her that she’d written down last night, and she was heading out of the gate.
Jason had been right. It was easy to find his apartment. When she got up the
stairs, she saw that his apartment door was cracked open. She had a short
fight with herself about whether or not she should knock or just go in. She
decided to barge in and ask Jason to breakfast. She didn’t know which bedroom
was his, and she stood there for a few minutes, looking at the decorations on
the doors. She remembered him saying once that Flogging Molly was his favorite
band, and one of the doors had a poster with that band on it. She grinned and
headed for the door. She opened it quietly.
“Surprise! I just wanted to see-“ Rachel froze. Jason
was in bed, with nothing on…and he wasn’t alone. Elena’s head popped up from
under the blanket next to him. She stood there for a few seconds, with her
mouth hanging open in shock, before she spun around and ran out of the
apartment. She was half way down the stairs when her phone started ringing. The
caller ID said it was Jason and she hit the Ignore button. She hadn’t even
started crying yet. It was coming, she could feel it, but she didn’t want
anyone to see it. She was trying to hold back as long as she could. Her phone
rang again, and it was Elena. She ignored
that
call, too. Once she was
safely behind the wheel of her car, she made the short drive back to her dorm,
parked the rental, and ran up the stairs to her room. When the door was shut
behind her, she dove onto her bed, facedown, and let the floodgates open. She
couldn’t believe it! He had been so sweet to her, so kind, and gentlemanly.
Now she realized that she was just going to be a notch in his belt. Well,
screw him! And Elena! She didn’t need them. She wasn’t going to be working
with Elena, either. She picked up the phone and called the woman that fielded
all calls after hours at the school. Rachel explained that she and Elena had
had a falling out that would never be resolved, and she wanted a different
teacher’s aide come Monday. The woman assured her it would be taken care of,
and that she wouldn’t have to work with Elena on Monday. Rachel thanked her,
and lay back on her bed to cry a little more. It felt like her heart had been
ripped out.
She had just felt that, for the first time, she had a sweet
guy, she was starting to build some confidence, and she was in a beautiful new
country that she’d wanted to explore with Jason. The shopping trip with Elena
was now tainted, as far as she was concerned, and she would never talk to the
two of them again. On a spur of the moment decision, she snatched up her keys
to the rental car, and locked up her room. She was going to see Italy, and she
was going to do it by herself. She didn’t need Jason or Elena, or anyone
else! She drove to the area where she was going to be teaching school at come
Monday. The ITT office was right inside the gate. She parked and walked in.
There were a few ladies behind desks, and a waiting area. There was a spinning
stand of the monthly schedules, as well as more details on each big trip.
“Can I help you?” One of the women had drifted over to
Rachel.
“Oh, no thank you. I need to find a trip first.” Rachel
smiled.
“Not a problem. Whenever you decide, just come on over to
one of the desks.” Rachel thanked her and started looking through the
printouts. There was a trip on a weekend that looked very enticing. It was to
Munich, Germany for the opening of Oktoberfest. Then they would be spending
that night in Salzburg, Austria, then go through the town and the castle before
coming back late that night. It wasn’t a bad price either. Rachel smiled.
That was the trip she wanted to take. She took the page that gave the details
of the trip, then went to find the woman who’d approached her earlier.
“Did you make a decision?” The woman smiled at her.
“Yes. I’d like to go on the Oktoberfest Express, please.”
The woman shuffled through some papers on her desk.
“No problem. Which seat on the bus would you like?” She
grabbed a diagram of the bus’ seats, and showed Rachel which ones were still
open. Rachel chose one in the back, where she could be by herself. The woman
wrote her name down. “The room assignments will be made when we check in, and
other than that, you just need to be here at five in the morning on Saturday.”
Rachel paid her, said thank you again, and left. She felt better about herself
now. She was going to see places that she’d never been to, and she was going
to do it alone. She couldn’t wait until next weekend.
Rachel spent the remainder of
this
weekend sewing in
her room and watching movies. Her phone would ring intermittently. She was
almost at the point where she didn’t even bother to look. It was always either
Jason or Elena, and she wasn’t going to talk to either one of them. That was a
pact that she made with herself, and she wasn’t going to break it under any
circumstances.
When Monday morning hit, Rachel was glad that she had the
rental car. She drove herself to the school and went to her room with all of
her decorations. She sat everything up, and waited to see who the new
teacher’s aide would be. A young woman walked in, with raven black hair, and
deep brown eyes. She crossed the room to where Rachel was sitting and offered
her hand for a handshake.
“Good morning! I’m Sky. I’ll be your teacher’s aide this
year.” Rachel offered her a smile.
“Hi. My name is Rachel. I’m glad that you could work with
me. Have you been here before?”
“Yes. This is my third year as a teacher’s aide. I’m
still working on getting my teaching certificate.” Rachel was relieved. She’d
still have someone that could help her learn the ropes. The little kids
started filing in the room, and both women turned their attention towards
them. Rachel couldn’t wait to start her first day.
Rachel’s week was great. She felt like she was the
mother for all of her little kids, and she was already starting to get attached
to them. Sky was turning out to be a lot like Rachel, and she was wanting to
try to make friends with her, but the fresh wound from Elena made her
hesitate. It was Friday afternoon, and Rachel and Sky were cleaning up the
room to have it ready for Monday again.
“Any big plans this weekend?” Sky asked absently, as she
hung up the art projects some of the children had made during the week.
“Yes, actually. I’m going on one of those ITT trips.
We’re going to Oktoberfest, then to Austria. I’m really looking forward to
it.” Sky smiled as she hung up the last project.
“Those are pretty fun. They do this one around Halloween
where they go to Romania and spend a night in Dracula’s castle. I’ve been
wanting to go on that one for a while now.” That was what Jason had said. If
more people were talking about it, it
had
to be a good trip. Maybe
Rachel would go on that one, too. The room was clean, and Sky was putting on
her coat. “See you on Monday!” She took her purse from the teacher’s cubby
and walked out. Rachel stayed a little longer and looked around at her room.
It made her happy to know that she’d made this room fun. She’d been the one to
make the little kids want to come back every day. Maybe this job wasn’t a
dream come true, considering the consequences that she’d already suffered, but
things were starting to look up, now, and she was going to start living the
life she’d always been too afraid to live. Rachel still had the rental car,
and she was heading over to the bank to pick up a wire transfer that her mom
had sent her. She was going to buy a car today, and luckily for her, the
dealership was not too much of a walk out the front gate. Luckily, it was a
different gate than the one that Jason lived out of. It would have killed her
to have to walk by his apartment building. She picked up the money, drove back
to the mini mall across from her dorm, and turned the car in. She made sure
she had the money safely zipped up in her purse, then walked out the front
door. She’d liked the little car that she’d been driving around, so she’d gone
out and found one that she was planning on buying. It didn’t take long for her
to sign the paperwork, and then the keys were in her hands. She happily drove
back to her dorm. Now, she was going to pack for her trip, then go to bed
early. She had to be up early, and she couldn’t be more excited.